Co-accused in alleged kidnapping pleads not guilty

The co-accused in an alleged kidnapping that occurred in Penticton in October pleaded not guilty.

Angel Violet Dyck, 28, is facing charges of kidnapping in relation to events that occurred on Oct. 18.

Dyck, who is co-accused along with former Vancouver gang member who lost his legs in a brutal stabbing, Scott Andrew McArthur, elected to be tried before a Provincial Court judge Wednesday.

Both McArthur and Dyck have pleaded not guilty and elected to be tried in Provincial Court. McArthur remains in custody since his arrest in October.

McArthur, 26, was arrested just two weeks after pleading guilty to a break and enter to a Vancouver business and receiving a conditional sentence, promising to turn his life around and speak to school children on the dangers of gang culture.

“We’ve been going through hell, every day is a challenge. I’m no longer a threat to society,” McArthur told the court in September while being sentenced for the break and enter. “I really do want to do better with my life after what happened.”

McArthur now faces a lengthy list of charges including possessing an unauthorized firearm, pointing a firearm, kidnapping using a weapon, using a firearm to commit extortion, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, multiple counts of kidnapping and extortion as well as assault with a weapon.

RCMP reported that in the early morning hours of Oct. 18 police received a report that a man called his grandmother saying that he and his dog were being kidnapped and threatened to be shot if the assailant isn’t given money. Police said they located a blue SUV outside an apartment building at Skaha Place and inside were the victim and three males. RCMP said they seized a handgun and a rifle, arrested the three males, and said it was a targeted and drug-related incident.

McArthur had both legs amputated in surgery, after refusing a gang order to take drugs into prison, McArthur’s defence counsel Bob Maxwell told the court in September.

Judge Greg Koturbash said in September that “at this stage in his life, (McArthur) no longer poses a threat to the community,” before handing down a nine-month conditional sentence with a curfew.